This week...

This week, Cael starts flag football, so I had to move his gymnastics times to Friday for the next couple of weeks. His teacher said that she's sad that she won't get to see her little Green Lantern for a while. :( Oh, he'll be back, don't worry. Today is Robin's birthday. Yea! She gets the day off of school, so she decided to sleep in. I slept in as well, but then I realized I should have gotten my run in, since this afternoon will be pretty much crazy. It's going to be beautiful for the next couple of days, so I'm hoping to take Cael to Wood River tomorrow so we can run a little together on the track, and he can play in the sand while I do speed work. Then we'll stop at the "enchilada store" (the grocery store in WR) to grab some enchiladas for supper. They're Cael's favorite, and they're handmade by some ladies in town. Delish. The only ones better are made by our former neighboors, the Soto family. Still working on goals and getting my pushup number up. Robin and I will hopefully remember to recount in the morning. This week, I need to think of a workout for my buddy. Hmmmmm. Gotta think a little on that one.

Week 5 via Ben

Week Five Theme: Back to the Basics.

We're nearly done with the first month so it's time to dust off those goals we made at the beginning and figure out where we stand. It's also time to think about The next month of the year. Remember, we don't look at New Year's Resolutions as yearlong pipedreams, we set realistic quantifiable goals and we work toward them.

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WEEK FIVE CHALLENGES:

(Since we're all at different places in our health and fitness journeys, there will be some differing challenges.)

• On Feb 1st, write down the goals you made during week one and assess yourself.
• Whatever the result, turn the page and write five new realistic and quantifiable goals for you to achieve by March 1st. (Remember, it's a leap year!) Maybe they are a continuation, maybe you have new goals. Whatever the case, write them down.
• On Feb 1st, max out on pushups or hold your plank. Write the number down.
• Beginners: Do 160 minutes of exercise this week. (40 minutes 4 times?) And 100 jumping jacks.
• Intermediate-Advanced: Do your normal routine, but add 300 jumping jacks into your week.
• Keep planking and pushing up!
• Oh hey look, we're having lots of cool sales on Do Life gear. BUY SOME OF THAT. lol just kidding. OR AM I?
• Stay connected with your partner. Keep the conversation and accountability going. On Wednesday, create a special/fun workout for your partner and send it to them. Complete the one they send you by Sunday.

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And please remember, this is just a kickstart. Keep working on the things you need to work on to better your life. Maybe this encompasses all of those things, maybe it doesn't. But you know as well as I do that it's worth it to keep doing it.

Saturday I'll make an official submission thread. By Sunday, post your weekly reflections, results, and thoughts there. Be sure to take pictures if you can. Get creative.

Do good, do life.

Long run

I got 7.3 miles in yesterday afternoon. My pacing buddy got me through 4 of them. Once again, my pace was crazy on nike+. I tried so hard to keep the same pace after she left, but it dipped. Oh well.

Critterman

Critterman! He was at the Hastings Museum last Thursday evening, so Cael and I had a date. He was pretty cool, but Cael was disappointed there was no lion. An opposum.

A ring-tailed lemur. A baby Burmese python. Cael going in to touch its tail. "It feels like plastic!" There was also a red tegu, a blue-tounged skink, and a barn owl. It was a fun evening - especially when Cael ordered for me at Hunan's. What a gentleman!

100th day of school

The 100th day of school is on Tuesday, so Cael is supposed to take something that has 100 of something on it. He decided to make some volcanoes with shooting lava. Each volcano has 50 toothpick lava spikes coming out. I was impressed that Cael thought of it all by himself. For his counting things, he's going to take a strand of 100 Christmas lights. :)

Sooooo tired

And no, it's not from training. Cael is sick and was coughing all night long. Poor kid. From about midnight on, I'm not sure how much sleep we got, but it wasn't much. He's sleeping now, so I'm just going to let him. It will do no good to wake up an exhausted, sick kid and force him to go to school. I'll check around 11 and see where we stand. If we can just get his cough to subside, I think we'll be ok. No fever or anything, so that's a relief. I will be getting a humidifier though today. Darn Nebraska winter air is so dry, I'm sure it's not helping things at all. I'm going back to bed as well. No need for both of us to be dead on our feet. I'm hoping to get rested up so that maybe I can run a little this afternoon. Pretty sure no gymnastics today, though. :(

Strange...But True!

So, as I got to know my buddy yesterday, I found out that they are stationed at Ft. Knox, KY, and her husband is originally from Kearney and went to UNL. Hmmm, interesting. What year did he graduate? 1996, and he was a band geek. Hmmm, interesting. Did he, by chance, know Alex Sommerfeld? Why, yes. Yes, he did! He also hung out with Rhonda Anderson (I went to Concordia with her). My world just got smaller. Craziness! ALSO - I run with a Nike+ sensor and wristband. It tells me how far I go, how long (time) I ran, calories burned, and average mile pace. Last Friday, I did 6 miles, and last night I finally uploaded my workouts into my computer. It gives me a graph of pace for each mile. What I saw was just really weird. The first part of my run, I was running next to a girl that runs about the same speed as I do. We fall into the same stride and silently push each other. Runners call this "pacing." So, we pace each other. On my graph for this run, I notice that my avg. pace for the first three miles were - 9:35, 8:54, and 8:57. Really fast for me! But, of course, I was being paced. The last three miles, after my pacer buddy left, were - 10:43, 10:43, and 10:42. I had the treadmill on the same mph the entire time, and yet, I had very different paces. I never thought I could get such different results while being on a treadmill.

Couple Cael stories

I just had to throw these in here: Last week, I was taking Cael to school, and I had the mp3 going. Toccata and Fugue came on. I skipped it, and Cael protested, so I turned it back on. We pulled up in front of his school and he lets out this long scary laugh. "What was that, Cael?" "It was an evil laugh, mom. This is a spooky song!" I laughed really hard as he got out and ran to the front door with his arms up and laughing his evil laugh. That's my boy. Allen's, actually. THEN, last week, Cael was using the nurse's bathroom in the office (the reason is a whole different story) and he came running out into the outter office. The secretary (the mom of one of my students) asked him what he was doing. "At home, we have a lid so we can shut it so the germs don't get out. There's no lid, so I had to run out really fast so the germs didn't get me!" Now, in his defense, he's been watching "World's Dirtiest Man" (Mike Rowe from "Dirty Jobs") that shows what happens when you flush. So, I understand, but it's still really funny.

My buddy

Well, I found a buddy. She's an Army wife in Kentucky, 31, and is a teacher. I think we match up pretty well. My goal this week is to get to 7 or 7.5 miles this weekend. I don't have much time, so I need to kick it into high gear. I'm going to do 4 miles of hill work tonight after school. Robin and I did Killer Buns and Thighs this morning. Thank you, Jillian Michaels. Level 2! And we didn't completely die. Woot! As long as I take my meds for my stomach before I run in the afternoon, it hasn't been an issue, which I'm quite thankful for. Guess we'll see what can be achieved this week!

Week 4 from Ben Davis

Welcome to Week Four! Let's get to it. (for best results, print this page) Week Four Theme: The Power of Community. Quote: "Everything is better when we do it together." This week is all about teaming up with someone. Specifically, meeting someone on these forums, and becoming accountability/inspirational partners for the next two weeks (at least). When I first started, one of the first things I did was enlist my brother as a motivation partner. We became a team and I wouldn't have been able to do it without him. Throughout the years on my blog I've forged hundreds of more friendships and it's one of the reasons I've had success so far. When I first started I would have never imagined finishing a marathon or Ironman, but they became possible with a team. It's not even a question. It's fact. WEEK FOUR CHALLENGES: As soon as you can, find a partner on these challenge forums. I'm making an official buddy thread where you can all meet up. I'd suggest keeping the communications inside the thread rather than the dialog system so we can all see who's still in need of a partner. Once you guys have connected, start with the dialogs and I would even suggest trading emails/FB info so you can stay in touch more readily. Throughout the week, discuss with each other your goals, victories, struggles, etc. Get to know one another. It doesn't matter if you're on two entirely different planets physically. Encourage one another based on what they need. Keep up with each other. You're going to get out what you put in. Hopefully your partner doesn't become uncommunicative, but if that happens, just come back and find another without calling him or her out. If for some reason you don't want to connect with someone here, make a concerted effort to buddying up in real life with someone who you can share the journey with. By Wednesday, share five specific goals with each other that will be reachable by the end of week FIVE. 12 days. (This challenge will work in conjunction with next week too). Retest your pushups/plank. Get to know each other outside of exercise-only. Don't share anything you're not comfortable with, but make an effort to know your buddy. On Saturday, message your buddy with four reasons they impressed you this week. You will not be submitting for yourself this week. You will be nominating your buddy and telling us why they had a good week and deserve to win.

Weekend

I went to a speech meet yesterday in Central City, and Cael stayed with Robin. Obviously, she wore him out. At the speech meet, my novice duet got 2nd, and my novice entertainment got a superior. Friday, I got 6 miles in. It felt really good. I would really like to get another pair of my Asics Tri-Noosa 6's. However, there are NONE left anywhere. At least in size 6.5. Boo. The 7's will come into stores during the last part of February. Tradehome Shoes is going to call me when they come in. In the meantime, I got some Saucony ProGrid Kanavara 2's. I haven't tried them yet, but I'm excited to tomorrow.

A couple good things

I am now registered for 2 spring races. March 17th is the Wilderness Trail race in Lincoln. I'm signed up for the half. The Lincoln marathon sold out in 2 weeks, so I couldn't get in. Oh well. I'm excited to do this one, though. I've never done a trail race, so it will be a neat experience. It will also be a good gauge for how I'm doing as far as training for a marathon, since I'm signed up to do the St. Louis marathon (full) April 15th. Gotta train, gotta train, gotta train. It will also force me to figure out my stomach issues. I've been doing ok as long as I take my meds regularly. I also have gone to the chiropractor twice in the last two weeks. My ribs were out and then my knees. I think my ribs are back out now, since Robin and I worked out pretty hard this morning. But, I need to be able to keep the 26.2 magnet on my car without saying "I ran a marathon once." :)

Week 3

This week is an old-fashioned scavenger hunt free-for-all! Keep working your pushups/planks and keep rocking the exercise, but the week is simple. Whoever gets the most challenges done wins the week. Winners tie? Prizes for everyone tied. Hope you all have a self-timer on your cameras. There are apps for that if you are using smart phone. [photo proof required for every single item!] [each item worth one point unless otherwise stated] Policeman/woman in your town wearing a Do Life shirt (2 points) or holding a homemade Do Life sign (1 point). You sitting on or standing next to a tricycle with a racing bib on. In public. Bonus points for helmet and sunglasses. Statue in your town wearing Do Life shirt (2 points) or wearing a Do Life sign around its neck (1 point). Ballerina pose during your next workout. The biggest chalk Do Life logo you can make. Outdoor basketball court? Screenshot of your longest walk/run of the week. (http://mapmyrun.com in case you don't know how to map a run yet. Or any other mapping/GPS device.) You holding your biggest excuse on a piece of paper while defeating the excuse. You holding the DVD of AIR FORCE ONE starring HARRISON FORD the BEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME. Bonus point for your best Harrison Ford face. GET OFF MY PLANE. You in grocery store holding a pineapple and a watermelon. At the same time. Your super healthy grocery list. You ignoring a warning sign. You holding a "Team Edward" or "Team Jacob" sign at the local library. You with 80+year-old. Both giving the peace sign. $18.87 in change. Picture of a homemade smoothie. Your hand must be in front of it giving a thumbs up. Recreate a famous picture/painting. You wearing seven shirts. You with as many other people holding Do Life signs. One point for every two people. 16 people = eight points. 100 people = 50 points. You wrapped in Christmas lights. And them turned on. I'm sorry. I know you JUST put them away. You in plank or pushup position. Outdoors. Picture of you finishing your toughest workout of the week. Or a re-enactment of your reaction upon finishing. Do Life Dog. (open to interpretation.) You at the most famous location in your town. Wearing Do Life shirt (2 points) holding Do Life sign (one point). You with an apple on your head with an arrow through it. You pointing to your city in an actual atlas. You in a music store rocking out. Do Life Cat. (open to interpretation.) You wearing your favorite sport's team's gear. Double peace sign. You holding a sign with how many minutes you worked out this week. You with someone named Richard. If your name is Richard, you with someone named Lauren. No cheating! ("they won't know his name is actually Bob...") You sitting in bleachers cheering on a game that's not being played. A homemade painting of your biggest goal. No deductions for lack of painting skillz. A lawyer's business card. Five bonus points if the lawyer's name is Larry. You standing beside a Ferrari. Picture of you on a treadmill. (2 points if the time is 30+ minutes and you appear to have actually done the 30 minutes.) You. In a boat. You on the top floor of a building. You high-fiving the grocery store cashier. You in a top-hat. You running in a top-hat. Good luck, guys! Deadline is Sunday night. I'll have picture-posting guidelines in official submission thread on Saturday evening. Keep running. Keep rocking. Keep writing down things you did well at the end of the day.

Told you

Told you the week wasn't over. Yesterday, Cael and I went to Wasabi Bistro in GI. Their California rolls have cucumber in them, so my son now likes sushi. Anyway, we looked out the window, and there was some unsightly trash in their rock garden (it's been really windy lately). so on our way out, Cael picked up the big pieces and we threw them away. Not a big deal, but at least some trash found it's proper place. Get ready for week 3!

Good things

This week I got a lot done. I ordered a FitDeck Junior for Cael. He thinks it's pretty cool. It's a deck of cards that has exercises on them. He gets to pick 5 and we do them. He's excited that he's pretty good at them. As far as doing well this week, I got up this morning and went out to take some pictures (see previous post). It's something that I've been meaning to do for a while, and I finally got out to do it. After taking the pics, I went to the gym and got on the treadmill. I didn't go very far, though. I think I should've gotten on the elliptical. Oh well. I got Cael signed up for youth league flag football, and he's excited about that. I need to get him some new shoes for that since the ones he has are dying. I also got signed up for a trail race in Lincoln on March 17th. I'll be wearing orange, of course. There's a full and 1/2 marathon, and a 6 mile. I'm doing the 1/2. I'm just hoping it's not frigid. That would not be good. As for paying it forward, last night I was at Papa Murphy's getting some pizza(take-and-bake). There was an older man using one of those walkers that you can also sit on. He finally got his pizza, but really didn't have a way to carry it (the seat wasn't big enough), so I offered to carry it out for him. There was a room full of people, so I figured we could get his pizza to his car somehow. I know I was supposed to do 2 things like that this week, but the week isn't over yet. Maybe tomorrow. Oh ya, and I've lost 3 pounds. Go me! :)

Trees and sunrise

This is probably stupid, but when we lived in Wood River, I would drive to GI every morning. That's not the stupid part. But, there were two trees out in the middle of nowhere, and I would see them sillouetted by the sunrise. I loved seeing these two trees every morning, so I went out this morning and took some pictures. I hope you enjoy them!

Christmas

This is right before we went to Cael's school program. So glad Grandma Breinig got to come!

Start of week 2

I have things that I did well on Saturday. Really. I was quite proud of myself, actually. I went to the gym while Cael was at a birthday party. I decided I wasn't going to run, since I did kind of a long run on Friday. Sad, I know. 3.5 miles isn't long, or at least it didn't used to be. I'll get there. But I did 20 minutes of intervals going forward (elliptical), then I did 10min backwards. I didn't let myself stop. I know, 10 min isn't that long, but have you gone backwards on an elliptical? Ow! I felt good about it, though. Last night I sat down and seriously could not think of anything I did significantly well. I guess we'll just move on through to week 2.

Week 2

Week Two Theme: Paying it Forward. Quote: "Do unto others." How many times have you been having a crummy day and all of a sudden someone does something for you or says something to you and it completely changes your day? Perhaps it doesn't happen enough, and that's where this week comes in. For these things to happen on a more frequent basis, we have to be ready to be the ones to do it. Being fit and doing life is more than exercising. We're still gonna rock our bodies this week, but we're also going to be mindful of others. This week is all about perhaps pushing ourselves outside our comfort zone. You can't be afraid to do it. Well, you can be afraid, but you also have to be willing to face that fear. WEEK TWO CHALLENGES: (Since we're all at different places in our health and fitness journeys, there will be some differing challenges.) Do something out of the ordinary for a stranger. Find a way to brighten someone's day. Pay for an elderly couple's meal at the restaurant. Give a homeless man a blanket. Volunteer. Compliment someone. Do something out of your way. Something, maybe, you've never done before. Do something else. Yep, that's (at least) two times this week, you'll be going out of your way. Reassess your pushups (or plank) today or tomorrow. And keep working them. There are pushup and plank plans all over the internet, or make up your own. Stick with it! Reassess your goals. Where are you? How are you doing? Do you need to change anything? Beginners: 150 minutes of exercise (or 20 minutes more than you did last week). Intermediate/Advanced: 30 extra minutes of intense work like last week + 200 jumping jacks. (all at once or spread out) Write four things you did well. Every night before bed. And please remember, this is just a kickstart. Find your own ways to do this challenge. Find the mindset. This week, we're looking out for others while we also shape ourselves. Homework! Questions to answer in this thread before Submission Day: 1. Tell a story of how someone went out of their way and changed your day or your life. 2. Where are you right now physically? Where do you want to be in 11 weeks? 3. What area of your life from last week can you improve on this week? Food? Exercise? Family? Career?

Family pics

Happy New Year!

4 things I did well (Friday)

Did "Killer buns and thighs"(30min) and ran 3.5 miles (45min or so) at gym. 1. tried new veggies. 2. only ate 1 piece of pizza after my salad. 3. ran the most I have in quite a while. 4. took my vitamins (I've been forgetting).

4 things I did well (Thursday)

We did yoga for 30min in the morning and we all went for a walk (with Cael) for 45min. 1. Gave a former student of mine who was shadowing me some confidence in teaching (I hope). 2. made sure Cael and I went to bed at a decent plan. 3. made a yummy supper. 4. Had Cael lead exercises in our walk.

4 things I did well (Wednesday)

Ran 20min after school. 1. I took my meds before I ran 2. I ate a salad at supper. 3. I got out of Omaha without my GPS during morning rush. 4. I remembered to get Cael milk when we got back to town so he could take it to school. Somehow I'm finding it really hard to find things I did well without saying to myself "I did that well, but..." and then think about all the bad stuff.

Week 1 challenge

My goals that we were supposed to make are: 1. Exercise specifically with Cael at least 2x/week. (Right now we sometimes play on the Wii, and we play together, and he has gymnastics, but not a specific exercise time). 2. Start 1/2 marathon training, making sure I get my long runs in today (1/2 hour at the gym after school doesn't really get me too far). 3. Eat more/different veggies (I usually do eat veggies, but I haven't been very consistent as of late). 4. Lose 6 pounds (I'm at 130lbs. I hat that! I feel gross). 5. Go to bed on time. No later than 9:30. (Lately it's been 10 or 10:30. Robin and I work out around 5:45am, so I need my sleep. Biggest excuse: Physically not feeling well. (stomach issues) Remedy: Take my meds and stay away from the crap I shouldn't be eating. Pushups: I did 13 regular pushups. I used to be able to do more. I was disappointed.

I've got Christmas pics, and family pics, but not with me, so I'm not going to post those right now. I do however have an interesting challenge going on. Ben Davis, author of the blog Bendoeslife.com, is pretty amazing. He lost a lot of weight and is a real inspiration to a lot of people. I wish I would have found him when Allen was losing all of his weight. Anyway, he has a website dolifemovement.com, and on it, he is issuing weekly challenges. I will repost them here and invite you to do them with me. Robin and I will be working our way through them and hopefully I will post our results. If nothing else, it should be entertaining. We've had a slow start to this week, since Allen was here, and I just took him back to the airport today. I'm going to jump in this afternoon with running during Cael's gymnastics class. Here's the first week's challenge. WEEK ONE CHALLENGES: (Since we're all at different places in our health and fitness journeys, there will be some differing challenges.) Write down five quantifiable goals for yourself. Emphasis on quantifiable. And they must be realistically achievable within one month (more on this below the challenges). Assess yourself and write down your current stats in all five areas. Do you want to lose six pounds? Find out exactly where you are now. Do you want to run a 35-minute 5K? Write down your current time. Etc. You might need to get creative with assessments. That's okay. There is no requirement on your goals or your assessments. By Monday night, get on the floor an do as many pushups as you can. Modified (from your knees) or regular. It doesn't matter how many you can do. Write this number down in a notebook or word document. Pushups will be a "fun" recurring litmus test throughout the 12 weeks. Beginners: Do 120 minutes of exercise this week. The exercise can be anything physical as long as you're working that heart rate. Walking, running, cycling, rollerblading, yoga, weight-lifting, anything. Intermediate/Advanced: Add 30 minutes to your average week and push the intensity during those 30 minutes. It doesn't matter if it's five intense minutes during six different workouts or one extra intense 30-minute session. Identify your biggest excuse. Write it down on a wall in your house. Then in your notebook write a way to eliminate that excuse. Not enough time in the day? "Eliminate American Idol and Glee." Sorry Each night before bed, write four things you did well that day.